motivated by minis

duane from democratic roadkill recently offered to send me some cards in exchange for some 2014 topps allen & ginter minis.  he really wants minis - so much so that he sent more cards than i expected, and i have been delinquent in completing the trade as i have tried to pick up a few more things to send in return.  here are some of the cards that duane sent.

he recently finished a 1960 topps set, so he sent some doubles my way.  fred kipp

danny mcdevitt

and john roseboro

it wasn't all vintage goodness (i'll show more of the vintage haul in a separate post) - there was some modern stuff, too.

i don't know that i've ever looked at the mike marshall and steve sax cards from 1989 score together at the same time, but they make for an interesting combination

as do these two cards from 2009 upper deck goudey - andre ethier, kirk gibson, clayton kershaw, and russell martin 4-in-1 red and green border

these cards remind me of sesame street.  russell martin is doing his own thing by wearing his headgear backwards.  and now the song is done.

minis are primarily what duane was after - he collects the a&g minis like nobody else - so of course he has plenty of extras.  here are a few from 2013 topps a&g that he sent - hanley ramirez, chad billingsley, ethier, and hyun-jin ryu

this stuff wasn't even the best part of the package duane sent, so stay tuned...

thoughtful cards from thoughts and sox

it is always a pleasure to open the mailbox and see unexpected padded envelopes.  especially when they hold treasures such as those sent to me recently by adam at thoughts and sox!  behold the unforeseen greatness with nary a bipping in sight!  (first let me applaud adam on his $2 ($2!!!!) purchase of a 1954 bowman preacher roe!  we should all be so lucky).

1960 topps norm larker

larker had the season of his life in 1960, batting .323 to finish 2nd in the nl batting average race (dick groat hit .325).  he essentially took over first base from gil hodges, and then yielded it to ron fairly as he was selected by the houston colt .45's in the expansion draft after the 1961 season.

2009 upper deck danny ardoin

ardoin has bounced around a bit since signing with the a's in 1995.  he debuted with the twins in 2000, then went to kansas city (but didn't make it to the bigs), signed with the rangers (appeared in 6 games), signed with the rockies (115 games over 2 seasons), picked up on waivers by the orioles (5 games), signed by the nationals (no big league appearances), traded to the astros (ditto), traded to the cardinals (no dice), and finally signed by the dodgers ( 24 games in 2008, although none in 2009).  that is quite a ride around professional baseball.

2009 topps ticket to stardom matt kemp

i believe matt kemp's ticket has been cashed.

2009 ud goudey 4 in 1 matt kemp, russell martin, andre ethier, rafael furcal

i like the 4 in 1 cards, although there are too many variations.  i might have to do one of these for the infield.

2008 donruss threads duke snider (century legends)

always nice to get a new card of the duke, although the photos are rarely new.  i think i've seen this image on several cards now.

2008 donruss sports legends paul molitor

adam also hit on one of my favorite non-dodgers (more expansive post coming soon).  i was a big molly fan for quite a while.

thanks adam!  i am compiling some red sox to send you as i type!

mvp!

thanks to the collective troll for the 2009 upper deck goudey joe mauer jersey card, and thanks to the voting media for not ignoring the season mauer put together.

here's to you joe!

traded cards from traded sets, and a contest!

a while back, andy from traded sets asked me if i would be willing to trade a couple of cards i had shown here on the blog. one was this tim raines bat relic and the other was the 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee ellsbury-granderson-figgins jersey trio i featured in this post. well, andy's back with a contest, and you could win that very same triple jersey card!

almost as important, here are the cards i received from andy:

2005 bowman vladimir guerrero bat card
the main piece of the trade.

2009 upper deck o-pee-chee vladimir guerrero face of the franchise

probably not the face of the angels anymore. it will be strange to see vlad in a different jersey next year.

completing the big daddy vladdy portion of the post, here's a 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee black bordered paralleland a hong chi kuo bbpjust a reminder, i am still trying to complete the set, so check it out and help a blogger out!

2009 upper deck goudey russell martin 4-in-1this is a card that belongs on sesame street (or was it electric company?) since ryan doumit is doing his own thing. and now the song is done.

back to the opc with a joe mauer award show hopefully on monday there's another award for mauer.

more mauer power - opc moments bbp

still not sure why he's 'old-school'. still think maybe it's the helmet.

finally, a 2009 topps heritage justin morneau
a short print, even.

thanks andy! good luck with the contest!

things really are bigger in texas

never mind that this card came from kansas, home of texas rangers cards. it's still big. it's a 1993 upper deck eric karros 5-year anniversary card.

measures about 3x5. it was one of many great cards i received in return for a bunch of rangers i sent. here are some more of my return:

2009 upper deck goudey vladimir guerrero

i like these cards, even if they show vlad swinging as a lefty, in pinstripes, and standing in a puddle of what may well be urine.

1984 topps dusty baker. johnnie b. just keeps on ticking.

1989 fleer jeff hamilton. i like to think that hamilton keeps tony larussa awake at night. meaning that larussa can't believe he lost a world series to a team that featured jeff hamilton as its third baseman.

1993 topps gold michael moore rookie card. also cliff floyd. moore was the dodgers' 1st round pick in the 1992 draft. he spent the next 14 years in the minors, including 3 at aaa, but never made it to the big leagues. not for lack of trying, though. meanwhile, cliff floyd's career was seriously derailed by a bad wrist injury early on.

1987 topps franklin stubbs. stubbs' 1986 season made greg brock expendable. eventually, stubbs would supplant brock in milwaukee as well. franklin hit .294 in the 1988 world series. good times.

2007 upper deck luis gonzalez. gonzo may well be my least favorite dodger. i disliked greg brock, but that was only because he had the misfortune of taking over for steve garvey. it wasn't really about brock. gonzo, on the other hand...

finally, a post-2000 twin. justin morneau on a 2008 topps updates & highlights card. raise your hand if you have already forgotten that josh hamilton didn't win the home run derby.

thanks spiff!

slette the good times roll

another fantastic box of cards arrived the other day from eric slette of the pettitte pursuit. away we go!

1981 fleer derrel thomas
this card reminds me of two things. first, it makes me want to say 'looking good, billy ray!' second, it reminds me of thomas's only home run in 1980, which came on april 18 against ken forsch and the houston astros. thomas was the catcher that day (yeager and ferguson were both banged up iirc), and i was in the stands. typical game for me - sutton and ryan pitched the day before, and welch and jr richard pitched the next day. i got goltz and forsch. but i saw dt go deep.

1993 donruss billy ashley.

being a rated rookie, you'd think billy would know that swinging the bat vertically like that is not a good idea.

1975 topps bill buckner

the two dodgers i think of when i think of the number 22 are bill buckner and brett butler. did bob bailor wear 22 also?

1982 donruss rick monday.

mo is back in wrigley. the very first draft pick ever. and scott boras wasn't his agent.

2007 upper deck joe beimel.

apparently there was some level of 'beimel-mania' out west the last couple of years. i do like the fact that joe had a dodgers' bathrobe custom made for himself.

2009 topps randy wolf.

i'm hoping against hope that wolf's start last week was an aberration, rather than a beginning of the return to mediocrity.

1984 fleer steve sax

saxy's right arm is just a blur. who knows where the ball is headed, though.

2008 upper deck juan pierre season highlight.

this particular season highlight is pierre's leading the league in singles. again.

2009 topps pee wee reese legends of the game

it looks like they couldn't get the 'b' right on the helmets back then.

2009 topps roy campanella legends of the game.

campy just looks like a stud.

2009 topps ring of honor johnny podres

here, podres is correctly shown in la gear, as this card celebrates the dodgers' second championship in california which occurred in 1963. i more closely associate podres with the 1955 championship, though. speaking of which...

2009 topps ring of honor don zimmer.

zim is representing the 1955 dodgers here, so the brooklyn era photo is correct. nice work, topps.

1994 topps stadium club chan ho park.

interesting camera angle. park made his debut in 1994, appearing in relief in 2 games early in the season. i was at jack murphy the following year for his first major league start on the final day of the season. the dodgers had clinched the west the night before, so they let park loose on the padres. he pitched well, too.

2009 upper deck goudey brad penny.

a red sock. from a yankee fan. it makes sense.

eric also sent a bunch of twins, which may come in handy this weekend at the twins autograph party. i'll let you know how that turns out!

thanks eric!

more traded sets contest winnings!

a few weeks ago i won one of andy's contests over at traded sets. he sent me some dodger goodness.

2009 upper deck piece of history russell martin jersey.
better than a piece of shirt from 'the mask' or some other such piece of s#itory.

2008 topps russell martin year in review.

proof that russell did, at one time, hit home runs. not this year, not yet.

2009 upper deck goudey russell martin. the third and final installment in the russell martin portion of the winnings. this card is pretty nice. he doesn't look as one dimensional as some of the other cards i have seen from this set.

speaking of which, it's a 2009 upper deck goudey andre ethier.

greg the night owl has pointed out how bad the orange background makes exposed skin look. ethier's been dipping into someone's orange bronzing lotion apparently.

2008 (or is it 2009?) upper deck documentary vlad.

i can't believe upper deck is updating this set. the back is all about torii hunter, so they didn't bother to correct the disconnect between the photo and the actual game.

2008 topps brad penny.

one of the few cards that shows penny with his head turned. i know fernando used to look straight up at the start of his windup, but penny doesn't turn his head until he starts to bring his leg down.

2008 topps chad billingsley.

how do you say cy young in jive? sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

finally, 2006 topps rookie of the week mike schmidt.

shouldn't they have just used the single player 1973 topps template, rather than make a single player card from the multi-player rookie card? i think so. at least they used an early photo of schmidt. i have the brooks robinson card from this set, and they used the 1978 topps record breaker photo shoot on a 1957 card. it looks like brooks was a 40 year old rookie.

i also won the 'jackpot' at andy's site, and i'll break down those packs in an upcoming post.

thanks andy!